TORONTO — Remember back in April when the Toronto Blue Jays were sitting 29th in baseball in home runs? Every run the opposition scored felt like a touchdown and if they managed to string together a few, the game felt like it was over.
Such is life without the threat of a long ball. But thankfully for the Blue Jays, they’re not living that way anymore.
Home runs can erase deficits in an instant, and the Blue Jays relied on that in an 8-7 win over the Athletics on Saturday at Rogers Centre. George Springer launched two homers, while Addison Barger and Bo Bichette also went deep to ignite the crowd of 38,017. Jeff Hoffman allowed a two-run homer in the ninth before closing the door for his 13th save of the season.
The joy from the Blue Jays’ fourth straight victory was tempered, though, with centre-fielder Daulton Varsho being removed from the game in the fourth inning with a hamstring injury after clutching his left leg and falling to the ground while running to third base.
The Blue Jays and Athletics spent the first few innings trading leads on Saturday. Tyler Soderstrom hit a three-run shot in the opening frame off Blue Jays opener Braydon Fisher, and then Addison Barger answered in the bottom half with a two-run shot before Nathan Lukes drove in two runs with a single up the middle.
The next inning, Toronto native Denzel Clarke launched his first major-league home run, a two-run shot that helped the A’s stake a 5-4 lead, but Bichette responded with his own solo shot, the 100th of his career.
Before long, Springer had blasted two solo homers — at 107 and 108.7 m.p.h. — and the Blue Jays’ firepower once again proved too much for the A’s, who also got a Brent Rooker two-run shot in the ninth that made it close.
The Blue Jays have hit 10 homers and scored 31 home runs in three games against the Athletics, with one more remaining on Sunday. While, of course, it would be easy to point out that the A’s are a last-place team and the Blue Jays are feasting on a fragile pitching staff, the reality is that the offence has looked different in May than it did earlier in the season.
Consider these monthly stats as the calendar flips to June. Entering Saturday’s play — and not including the latest offensive outburst — it shows a tale of two seasons for the Blue Jays’ offence.
March/April
MLB Ranks
May
MLB Rank
Home Runs
19
29
34
7
Runs
104
26
128
7
OBP
0.309
19
0.344
2
wRC+
89
24
121
3
WAR
2.7
19
7
1
The uptick in offence has resulted in wins for the club, which produced a 16-12 record in May compared to a 14-16 record in March and April.
Sure, that adds up to the club sitting just two games above .500. But it’s a good position to be in entering the middle portion of the baseball calendar. And in a tight American League, it’s something the club can point to as it makes determinations closer to the July trade deadline.
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